November 25, 2022 by in 14850 Magazine
Amazon sells its Fire tablets, the full-color cousins to the Kindle e-reader devices, much cheaper than comparable Android tablets or iPads, hoping you’ll buy lots of Kindle e-books, rent lots of movies, and watch lots of Amazon Prime shows once you’ve got the tablet. Even at full price, starting at about $60 for a low-end 7-inch tablet, they’re a good deal, but with Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts of as much as 50%, Fire tablets are a steal.
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I’ll add right off that while Fire tablets are based on Google’s Android tablet operating system, they don’t let you download the full range of Android apps from the Google Play app store. You can, though, download a pretty solid set of streaming TV apps like Netflix, Peacock, and ESPN; social software like Tiktok, Facebook, and YouTube; even workplace tools like Zoom and Outlook. There are also plenty of games and kid-focused apps, and kid-specific tablet models with rugged cases and kid-safe two-year guarantee.
I still miss the old iPhone models that fit easily in most people’s hands! I prefer smaller devices, and love the 7-inch and 8-inch size of Amazon Fire tablets. The 7-inch Fire, just $40 this weekend, is a basic model, doesn’t have HD video, and has 16GB of storage, not a lot of space for lots of apps and downloaded videos, but it’s a fine starting point and it fits in more pockets. At $45, though, the slightly bigger Fire HD 8 has an HD screen, 32GB of storage, and longer battery life. A newer version, the 2022 Fire HD 8, at $55, adds a faster processor and still-longer battery life, but most users reading, watching videos, or even browsing the web won’t see the difference.
Those models are great for reading books, but if you might want to read magazines or comic books, I’ve been eyeing the Fire HD 10, just $75 this weekend instead of $150. This ten-inch tablet is great for watching movies, and its screen is big enough for a whole page of a magazine or comic book at a readable size, without zooming in on each column or panel. (Add a $55 Bluetooth keyboard and you’ve almost got a laptop for under $150.)
The company is selling its devices so cheaply hoping you’ll buy lots of Kindle books, rent lots of movies, and buy lots of games from them, but you don’t have to! The Tompkins County Public Library lends e-books and audiobooks for free, the Cornell University Library has streaming video resources for the Cornell community, and there are countless magazines and videos you can access online for free — or by paying providers other than Amazon.
Of course, we’re big fans of buying local for the holidays, so we suggest buying books from Odyssey Bookstore or Buffalo Street Books in person, or ordering your audiobooks online from Odyssey or BSB!
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